It is almost a universal desire in adult humans to look younger. As such, there are a multitude of products on the market today that promise to reduce the signs of aging. While many of these products have some effect in reducing the appearance of wrinkles, these solutions are typically not customized to the individual's needs. Additionally, current computing systems have been developed for age prediction and progression; however, these programs lack the ability to accurately determine and/or progress age appearance based on a plurality of criteria.
As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,734,858 (“the '858 Patent”) describes a method and apparatus for use of computer aging to demonstrate a product benefit. The '858 Patent discloses that an image may be progressively aged to a predetermined period of time and a determination may be made regarding the effects of a product on that aging. However, the '858 Patent fails to address ethnic differences of aging or the ability to account for ethnic-dependent changes to color, shape, texture, etc., which occur to the face of an individual as the individual ages.
As another example, International application WO2006005917 (“the '917 Publication”) describes a system and/or method for plausible aging of the human face. Specifically, the '917 Publication discloses that vector representations may be utilized for identifying and modifying an age of an individual in an image. Some embodiments determine relationships of generations of the same family. However, the '917 Publication fails to provide accuracies related to ethnic-dependent color changes, shape changes, and/or factors for accurately performing the algorithm described therein.
Conventional modeling techniques are unable to suitably age or de-age an individual from a starting age through at least one intermediate age to a final age continuously while maintaining the realism of gradual shape, color, and (most challengingly) texture changes over time. Thus, there is a need for an improved aging model and method of predicting age-based changes to appearance.